On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 19:58:57 -0500, madgardener
wrote:

That IS a milestone!!! So how has your shredding brown paper products
been incorporated into the kitchen scraps worked out for brown
material for the layering? Has it broken down adequately? And when
do you have finished compost for your garden to use?

I used to shred the paper, but realized it was a waste of electricity
most times (phone books being the exception heh). I would tear apart
grocery bags along the creases. Then I would tear them into strips
lengthwise and dig them under in single layers in the fall or spring.
I would then poke the garden fork into the dirt, so water seeped
through and around the paper. It is labor-intensive but within a few
weeks they would be gone. By the way, I think I forgot to mention
that it's only veggie and fruit scraps...no meat or bones or other
animal scraps except maybe occasional bad milk or eggshells.

I used to have an "official" compost pile, but realized putting it
directly into the garden wasn't too bad, especially in the
off-seasons, or in spots that were in-transition (ie going from spring
to summer crops, the garlic being pulled out in late July, etc.). The
"official" pile would also get overrun by weeds, and I said to myself
"Im not doing this for THEM". So I simply dig the compost under in
late fall or early spring and cover with a layer of dirt or shredded
leaves. The worms can be merciless heheh. All that's left in a
couple weeks (in summer) is a piece of packing tape or plastic that
somehow got slipped into the compost bag.

I finally tackled the
pile of paperwork on my computer desk and was shocked at the amount of
paper that had accumulated and kept kicking myself at the idea of how
much shredded dry stuff this would have provided my pile.

I compost a little white paper, but not much. Usually I just tear the
plastic address cover off and compost the rest of the envelope.

This year in my original compost pile I have done an experiment with
the grassy stuff that overgrew in the back of my house. It pulled up
so easily that I just jumped in and ripped it up since raking it was a
bit too much and I wound up having two piles over three foot deep.
Once I got it into a wad, I threw the whole thing into the older
compost pile and watered it down some.

The weeds here are an extremely difficult, non-native lady's thumb.
Tiny pink flowers on a long weedy stem. I can pull a thousand plants
out in late summer and they'll be a foot tall _again_ within 2
weeks...and it profusely re-seeds itself. The only solution is a 2-3
layer of newspaper or other mulch around established plants. My
entire carrot crop was wiped out by weeds this year and it's not going
to happen again next year. They were foot-tall, vibrant carrots and
within a month in August they were stifled and killed by these damn
weeds.

Pulling weeds out is futile, because you're also taking away valuable
water and nutrients for the desired plants, not to mention the root
distrubtion caused by the pulling. ALWAYS use mulch; if you're
pulling weeds then you're already losing the battle and getting
weaker crops.

So you've been doing this for four
years? Or have you been composting for longer? I've insisted on
saving compostable things now for so long I've "ruined" Squire. When
he was out on the road he called one night to tell me I'd completely
messed him up. He was up that morning making coffee in the hotel room
coffee pot and was looking for the compost can to put the grounds and
filter...LOL

heheh nice. Yes only 4 years.

madgardener up on the ridge, back in a rather cold and windy fairy
holler, overlooking English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7,
Sunset zone 36 where the wind chills tonight are promising to be at
least zero!

Sounds like a perfect wind turbine location.

Dan